[zamnos]

You don't need to hit 200 wpm but I haven't seen too many programmers who hunt-and-pecks at the keyboard and can't touch type. Even on a Qwerty keyboard you should be able to get high double digits, if not hit/exceed 100 wpm. The two sites I like for practice are:

https://monkeytype.com/

https://play.typeracer.com/

[aquariusDue]

Typing fast for sport is fun, that I understand. But it's really weird (to me at least) how most developers say that measuring lines of code as a performance metric is an awful idea, and then there are others that more or less kinda shame people for not being good or great typists.

Am I crazy? Isn't it conflicting? Maybe those two groups don't overlap at all? Then do great typists believe measuring lines of code to be a good idea?

And being proficient at using your code editor doesn't require or exclude being fast at typing. Between the two I personally would chose mastery of vim/emacs or some other IDE over having a typing speed faster than 80 WPM. Sure, both would be great, but if I have to choose one I know which I prefer.

Full disclosure: I type on a QWERTY layout at an average of 65 WPM.

One thing I'd add is that some stuff like Home Row Mods, Caps Lock as ESC and enhancements like that seem to me like a larger productivity booster than the jump from 70 WPM to 100 WPM. But even so I might be wrong on that because I personally haven't experienced writing faster than 70 something WPM at my best.

Anyway, rant over and I apologize if I come off as rough. It's just something that's been nagging at the back of my mind and I still don't know how to properly put it into words.

[roundandround]

Sure typing speed utility drops off pretty quickly but if it is a bit lower or makes just a part of your brain stop coding and think about more physical matters that should be in muscle memory then I think it has an effect on your ability to write a flow of code. (I saw this a great deal with regional keyboard layouts.)

Its hard to say if what you program will ultimately be better or worse as being used to micro interruptions can mean more diligence as much as they can mean forgetting an important caveat. But generally I think it means you are progressing at a slower rate toward an integrated group of skills.

For editors and IDEs it can be quite similar for refactoring, debugging and analysis of the code base. The worse you are at using them or the more indirect your proximity to the exact code base of the version you are working with, the more you rely on building/maintaining mental models which has its benefits and dangers.

I think its very hard to say anything is right or wrong. I do think that the question of where you expect to be in terms of needing each skill as your mastery of others grows is the question.

[zamnos]

I don't see how they are related at all! Even the worst programmer can see that if we were to judge by LoC that they could add frivolous lines to juke the stats. LoC is stupid and I don't see how LoC is relevant to the conversation at hand. I do think that every programmer's had that stroke of inspiration where they can't type fast enough to get the code out of their head though

As far as typing speed, the difference between 10 wpm and 40 wpm is far greater than 70 wpm and 100 wpm. You don't have to hit 100 wpm to be a good programmer, but I have a hard time believing you can be one hunting and pecking at 10 wpm. (With exception made for the blind.)

[dxdm]

> that measuring lines of code as a performance metric is an awful idea, and then there are others that more or less kinda shame people for not being good or great typists

I'm not on board with shaming people, nor do I think that lightning speed typing is needed. However, one I want to type my lines of code, no matter how few they might be, it's about translating thoughts into code as easily as possible. It helps not having to bother with the details of typing, but the typing more or less taking care of itself. Keeps the zone and the focus on the code, and not on the keys.

[scotty79]

Touch typing seem like a useless skill to me. I use keyboard more for navigation than actual typing. I read many times more code than I write.

And when I write I just need to see the keyboard with the corner of my eye and my fingers just find the right keys as I'm pecking, purely through muscle memory that I've gained with zero effort just by years of experience.

[soitgoes511]

I have to switch back and forth between french (azerty) and english (qwerty) many times a day. My typing speed has regressed. But I manage just fine without hitting 200 wpm. How does one practice the constant switiching?

[HAL9000Ti]

What do you think Linus Torvalds' typing speed is? https://youtu.be/S5S9LIT-hdc?t=3

[kamikazechaser]

Low 50 if we go by the video.

He might obviously be in the 80+ range irl.

[MonkeyClub]

He’s also looking at the keyboard, so maybe he’s unfamiliar with it. Perhaps when shooting the video they thought, hey, we need that cool clicky sound, and had him use a mechanical keyboard.

But in all, he types fast enough to write Linux.

Typing speed is important for typists. For programmers, I’d say that even a 50-80 wpm rate is adequate for getting your thoughts down on the file and off to the compiler.

[b0afc375b5]

Also shoutout to https://www.keybr.com

I used this to learn one hand typing when I was bored.